THE ITALIAN EMIGRANT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3054, 26 November 1908, Page 3

THE ITALIAN EMIGRANT.

When Australia one day goes in earnest into the question of immigration she will probably extend her operation (writes the London correspondent of the Sydney "Daily Telegraph") beyond the British Islands on to the Continent. The ease with which a desirable class of Continental emigrant is obtained is strikingly demonstrated in a fascin-1 ating book just published, "Home Life in Italy." Writing of the influence which the American Continent has obtained upon the mind of the simple people of Italy the authoress says:—"Even high above us in the Apennines, where you might fancy the name of America to be a myth, the sturdy lad of 14, who trudges by your mule, tells how next month he is to start on a solitary jour- j ney to join his elder brother at! Buenos Aryes. His father is dead; j his mother keeps on the little farm j Jjp thgre among th§ beech trees in a bifSve struggle to bring up the rest of the young family. This boy's eyes sparkle as he thinks of the great ■world beyond the seas; like many another Italian lad of to-day, he has rgown weary of the mountains, of the ever-tinkle of the cowbells, and of the wandering up and down the rocky gorges following the mules with their loads of charcoal for the towns." The Italian rural labourer gets a wage which ranges from 15s to 25s a month, out of which he feeds and support'' himself and his family. The many-sided larrning of Australia, whether it be fruit or wheat-growing or dairying m the south, or sugar-growing in the tropics; should be just as tempting a , field for lucrative employment to these Mediterraneans as anything America has to offer. The Australian who objects, from selfish motives, to the inflow of the foreigner from Europe might be reminded that the American seamen, towards whom he was so enthusiastic and affectionate a few weeks ago, carried in their veins a great deal of European blood that was not British.